"Most nineteen-year-old girls would be horrified at the thought of marrying someone my age."
"I'm not most nineteen-year-old girls." Elara's expression didn't change. "And you're not looking for someone to bear children or provide emotional companionship. Your wife died forty years ago and you never remarried. That suggests you either don't want those things or have accepted you won't find them again."
Duke Romian went very still. "You're remarkably blunt."
"Efficient communication requires clarity."
"And you think I want... what? A business partner in the form of a wife?"
"I think you want someone who won't complicate your military duties, who can manage your civilian affairs competently, and who understands the arrangement is strategic rather than romantic." Elara pulled out a folded document. "I drafted preliminary terms."
She handed it to him. He unfolded it, scanning the contents.
**Proposed Marriage Terms:**
